Fatal Fire

Neighbors say around 10 a.m. Thursday morning fire engulfed a home off Cool Emerald Drive. Neighbors tried to save the victim. The woman who called 9-1-1 says she went around the house trying to reach her neighbor, but was unsuccessful.

Firefighters were called to the home in the 4,000 block of Cool Emerald Drive. By the time they arrived on scene the house was fully engulfed in flames.

Marie Worrell lives just a few doors down from the burning home and says, "My mother-in-law was in our kitchen and saw the flames and called for me. I ran with my camera and caught the pictures of the house in flames."

The pictures Worrell took shows the roof consumed by fire. It took six fire trucks to put out the flames and shortly thereafter authorities made a gruesome discovery.

CAPT John Gatlin with the Tallahassee Fire Department says, "Extinguishing efforts took approximately 30 minutes to bring the fire under control. Subsequent to extinguishing the fire the search revealed one victim in this fire.”

Several neighbors say they tried desperately to reach the victim. They say they even tried knocking on the door to wake the man, but to no avail.

Todd Veasey lives next door to the fire and rushed home to check on his beloved dog "Muffin" hoping she wouldn't become the second victim in this fatal fire.

Todd says, "My immediate concern was for my dog, obviously. A friend of mine called me from the fire station and I came home to see if she's okay."

Though Muffin was fine, a firefighter sustained minor injuries fighting the blaze and was treated by paramedics on the scene. Veasey's home is one of two that sustained damages. Authorities estimate damage to be around $200,000.

The man's name has been withheld until his family has been notified. Right now they're still in the investigation stages and have not ruled how the fire started.

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